What is the reasons for this fast day and why the Chief Rabbinate of Israel chose to observe the Tenth of Tevet as a “general kaddish day” for the victims of the Holocaust?

Tenth of Tevet (Hebrew: עשרה בטבת‎), the tenth day of the Hebrew month of Tevet, is a minor fast day in Judaism. It falls out either seven or eight days after the conclusion of Hanukkah, depending on whether Rosh Chodesh of Tevet that year is observed for one day or two. The Tenth of Tevet commemorates the onset of the siege that Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia laid to ancient Jerusalem, an event that ultimately led to the destruction of Solomon’s Temple (the First Temple) and Babylonia’s conquest of southern Israel’s Kingdom of Judah.History According to II Kings (25:1-25:4), on the 10th day of the 10th month (which is Tevet when counting from Nisan, the “first month” according to Exodus 12:1-2), in the ninth year of his reign, (588 BCE), Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, began the siege of Jerusalem. Two and a half years later, on the 9th of Tammuz (Jeremiah 52.6-7), he broke through the city walls. The siege ended with the destruction of the Temple three weeks later, on the 9th of Av, the end of the first Kingdoms and the exile of the Jewish people to Babylon. The Tenth of Tevet is thus considered part of the cycle of fasts connected with these events, which includes: Shivah Asar B’Tammuz (17th of Tammuz) and Tisha B’Av (9th of Av).Courtesy JerusalemShots.com

Kotel at night after ShabbatCourtesy JerusalemShots.com KotelCourtesy JerusalemShots.com PrayerCourtesy JerusalemShots.com

The first mention of the Tenth of Tevet as a fast appears in Zechariah (8:19) where it is called the “fast of the tenth month.” One opinion in the Talmud (b. Rosh Hashana 18b) states that the “fast of the tenth month” refers to the fifth of Tevet, when, according to Ezekiel (33:21), news of the destruction of the Temple reached those already in exile in Babylon. However, the tenth is the date observed today. Other references to the fast and the affliction can be found in Ezekiel  24:1-24:2 (the siege) and Jeremiah (52:4-52:6).

According to tradition, as described by the liturgy for the day’s selichot, the fast also commemorates other calamities that occurred throughout Jewish history on the tenth of Tevet and the two days preceding it:

On the eighth of Tevet one year during the 200s BCE, a time of Hellenistic rule of Judea during the Second Temple period, Ptolemy, King of Egypt, ordered production of the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek.[3] Seventy sages were put into solitary confinement and ordered to translate the Torah into Greek. The expected outcome would be a multitude of different translations which would then be compared and critiqued by the Greeks. This would then openly show the meaninglessness of the Torah and the divergent opinions of the rabbis interpretation of its meaning. However, all seventy sages independently made exact translations into Greek. The Greeks saw this as a most impressive feat. However, various rabbinical sources see this event as a great tragedy, a debasement of the divine nature of the Torah, and a subversion of its spiritual qualities. They reasoned that upon translation from the original Hebrew, the Torah’s legal codes & deeper layers of meaning will be lost. Many Jewish laws are formulated by specific Hebrew words the Torah employs; without the original Hebrew code authenticity of the legal system will be damaged. The mystical meanings contained in the Torah are also based upon the original Hebrew. As such, these will not be accessed by individuals learning the Torah in Greek (or any other language) alone. Other ancient sources, such as Philo, consider it a miraculous achievement, a cause for jubilation rather than mourning. Philo in fact suggests that the day was marked by celebration.

Ezra the Scribe, the great leader who brought the Jews back to the holy land from the Babylonian exile and who ushered in the era of the Second Temple, died on the ninth of Tevet.

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel chose to observe the Tenth of Tevet as a “general kaddish day” for the victims of the Holocaust, many of whom lack identifiable yahrtzeits (anniversaries of their deaths).

Courtesy http://en.wikipedia.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenth_of_Tevet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0doOQu6loE&feature=related

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